By Mike Aladenika.
The Nigerian government and by extension other African Nations have been urged to urgently pursue an active industrial strategy taking agro-business as its base while continuing to promote other industrial sectors, and the services sector that have driven most African economies.
This was the position of the Senior Special Advicer to the President on Industrialization, African Development Bank(AfDB), Prof. Banji Oyelaran-Oyeyinka while delivering a keynote address during his investiture as a Fellow of the Nigerian Society of Chemical Engineers in Abuja, Nigeria.
Prof Oyelaran-Oyeyinka said for Africa and Nigeria to grow in the face of global economy, " for us to grow the rate of our manufacturing, we must make a faster rate of our economic growth", wondering how far Nigeria can go without industrialization.
" Continued importation of goods and services will cripple our economy, we must increase productivity, expand exportations and earn more foreign exchange. The economy is poorly diversified in it's technological production base and export basket".
Nigeria and other African nations should "prioritise security of Agricultural and industrial assets", as according to the AfDB official, "the challenge of rural and urban insecurity that has disrupted agriculture production, while massive crude oil theft has led to Nigeria loosing up to 120Milion barrels of crude oil from January and September this year amidst revenue crisis. The level of crude oil loss in production translates to $12.6billion going by crude oil production data obtained from the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC)."
Prof. Banji Oyelaran-Oyeyinka then recommend "the urgent implementation of the Oronsaye Report as most agencies exist only as conduits for corruption. Focus investment on few critical science, technology and industrial areas and find them to global standards."
#SPARKNEWSNAIJA(SNN).
+2348024189597(WhatsApp/Calls)
+2349028657005 (WhatsApp/Calls)
email.- oluayemyk@gmail.com.
Comments
Post a Comment